A development company based in Ontario, Canada is looking at the possibility of building an energy-efficient, sustainable apartment project in an industrial section of Grand Junction populated with warehouses and garages. The company s2e Technologies specializes in solar projects, smart communities, and multi-family apartment complexes. Last year the company saw the completion of its first net zero grocery store in Ontario, a project designed to use 35 percent less energy than a typical grocery store. Now s2e Technologies is looking at the possibility of redeveloping a 5-acre Grand Junction site at 630 S. Seventh Street. That property was formerly the home of StarTek, a company specializing in customer support for health care, retail, and e-commerce clients. StarTek moved out of the one-story, 50,000 square foot building it occupied at the site several years ago. The Ontario company may be closing on the property - which has recently been listed for around $3.3 million - early next year, with actual construction at the site beginning sometime in summer 2020. Because the property is located in a defined Opportunity Zone, any redevelopment project would be eligible for certain economic incentives. It is not yet known whether the company will demolish the former StarTek building or re-purpose it. By Garry Boulard
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The unemployment rate, according to the most recent statistics released by the Department of Labor, has fallen to a new low of 3.5 percent, with more than 266,000 jobs added in November. The latest numbers, said Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia in a statement, “shows the economy continues to flourish.” Scalia also noted that the last time the unemployment rate was as low as 3.5 percent was in 1969. As recently as the fall of 2009, the unemployment rate stood at 10 percent. Despite those strong numbers, job growth overall for the year has slowed down compared with last year, which saw an average of 223,000 new jobs per months. This year the average has come in at around 180,000 per month. According to the Labor Department’s Employment Situation Monthly, the most notable job gains in November were seen in “healthcare and in professional and technical services.” Employment was also up in the manufacturing, transportation, warehousing, and financial activities sectors, said the report. Job growth overall in the construction industry posted a 2 percent gain in November, with a 2.2 percent increase in nonresidential work, and 1.7 percent gain in both the heavy and civil engineering and residential sectors. That translates to around 1,000 new construction jobs last month. In a statement, Anirban Basu, chief economist with the Associated Builders and Contractors, noted that “while labor market data tend to be lagging indicators, it is clear that the U.S. economy retains plentiful momentum as it heads toward 2020.” Basu also noted, however, that one trouble spot remains: new office and retail space construction, which has recently seen a decline in investment. By Garry Boulard In a comprehensive move to protect the small village of Hatch, the Dona Ana County Flood Commission has announced plans to build a new $12.7 million dam at the lower Spring Canyon. The project is the result of years of study and an agreement forged between the flood commission and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. According to sources, the $12.7 million project will be funded primarily through the Army Corps, although additional funding is also coming from the Flood Commission. Three appropriations with a dollar value of just over $2.2 million, earlier approved by the New Mexico State Legislature, will also help support the project. Located nearly just under 40 miles northwest of Las Cruces, Hatch has a population of around 1,600 people and has been repeatedly subject to late summer flooding resulting in damage to structures, roads, and land in the village. According to a press release from the Flood Commission, the damages from floods in Hatch have exceeded more than $5 million in the last several decades. One of the most memorable floods occurred in August of 2006, when the nearby Placitas Arroyo was overwhelmed, resulting in up to 6 feet of water pushing though the village. Work is expected to begin by early next year on the design phase of what will be an earthen embankment dam. By Garry Boulard In a move to upgrade its current terminal, the Santa Fe Regional Airport is hoping to secure up to $10 million in capital outlay funding when the New Mexico Legislature begins its one-month winter session in January. The proposed upgrading of the terminal includes the building of a new baggage claim area, as well as an additional gate - two projects with a combined price tag of $14.5 million. Airport officials would also like to see the building of new counters in the terminal, as well as a reconfiguring of the existing security screening area. Those two projects are estimated to cost $3 million to complete. The City of Santa Fe already has some $11.5 million in funding for the overall airport upgrading work, which would be added to the $10 million that will hopefully come from the state. Located at 121 Aviation Drive, the airport saw more than 115,000 boardings last year, and in terms of traffic, is the second busiest airport in New Mexico behind the Albuquerque International Sunport. By Garry Boulard The country’s transportation construction market should exceed $300 billion next year, up by nearly $14 billion over 2019. According to a new study released by the Washington-based American Road & Transportation Builders Association, project growth in 2020 will be fueled by increased investment at the federal, state, and local government level. The report, U.S. Transportation Construction Market Forecast 2020, specifically forecasts a 6 percent increase in state and local government investment next year, for a total dollar value of $77.5 billion. Those projects will additionally be spurred by voter-approved November initiatives in 19 states designed to fund a variety of infrastructure projects. “That money is getting into the pipeline and certainly helping the highway work,” Alison Premo, the ARTBA’s chief economist, remarked in a webinar discussing the new report. Premo added: “There’s a growing trend of the state and local governments using the ballot to approve the local funding measures.” Construction work on bridges, parking lots, and private highways is also expected to substantially grow from just under $70 billion this year to nearly $21 billion next year. Subway and light rail investment will additionally see a marked increase in 2020, jumping from the current $10.3 billion to around $11 billion—a record level. Regionally, the report sees the greatest transportation construction growth in eleven states, two of which, Arizona and Texas, are in the West. Due to the aging nature of their roads and bridges, the states of New York, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin are also expected to make up some of the largest transportation construction markets in the country next year. In a release issued by the ARTBA, Premo also noted that the one variable in next year’s picture is whether Congress will renew the big Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act legislation. “Any project delays - because states are concerned about whether the next federal surface transportation bill is completed in a timely matter - could temper 2020 market growth,” said the release. By Garry Boulard Phoenix will soon see the opening of its first Latino Cultural Center, now that members of the Phoenix City Council have decided on a location for the new facility. The project, which has been talked about and studied for well over a decade, will go up inside an existing structure known as the North Building at 1202 North Third Street, next to the Margaret T. Hance Park. It is thought that it will cost at least $12 million to upgrade and renovate the facility for use as the new center. According to city documents, there is currently just under $1 million available from the passage of a bond in 2001 to fund the project, with additional support expected to come from a variety of sources. In approving the project site, council members also stipulated that if the necessary funds have not been raised by the last day of 2023, “the use agreement would need to be reevaluated.” The city-owned North Building measures nearly 24,000 square feet and was formerly the home of the First Southern Baptist Church. Asbestos and lead paint were removed from the one-story brick structure more than a decade ago at a cost of $145,000. At least eight other locations for the new center were studied by an ad hoc committee before the North Building structure was decided upon. By Garry Boulard Albuquerque is receiving a $1.2 million grant from Washington to build essential infrastructure inside the city’s historic Rail Yards. The infrastructure will specifically support a 35,000 square foot facility housing Central New Mexico Community College’s Film Production School of Excellence. From a variety of sources, Albuquerque is providing a match to the $1.2 million federal grant, with Mayor Tim Keller, in a ceremony accepting the federal backing, remarking “the Rail Yard redevelopment is a team sport: success is going to require private and public sector investment on every level.” The federal funding is coming from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, and will pay for just a fragment of an estimated $80 million in total remediation, building renovation, and infrastructure work needed for the 27-acre Rail Yards. The Economic Development Administration, which operates as part of the Department of Commerce, is dedicated to supporting regional economic development efforts in communities across the country. In a statement, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the planned CNM facility will allow Albuquerque to “expand its film production sector and attract new retail, office, restaurant, and hospitality businesses.” Earlier this year, the City of Albuquerque and CNM signed a Memorandum of Understanding designed to see the film production facility built in the Rail Yards. A study released this summer by the Portland-based Leland Consulting Group spoke enthusiastically about the potential for the production facility, arguing, “It will bring hundreds of young people, students, and professors to the site, along with their energy, creativity, and discretionary funds to be spent at businesses on or near the site.” Work on the facility is expected to begin next year, with a rough completion date in advance of the fall 2021 semester. By Garry Boulard Representing a surprise third quarter upturn in projects, the Washington-based American Institute of Architects is reporting the highest level of new billed projects since the fall of last year. The Institute’s Architecture Billings Index increased from 49.7 in September to 52.0 in October. Surveying architectural firms nationally on a mon-th-tomonth basis, the billings index uses a 0 to 100 measure, with any score below 50 representing a decrease in billings from the previous month. According to a statement issued by the AIA upon the release of the latest index findings, “Architectural firms remain cautiously optimistic about the future, despite ongoing concerns about a potential economic downturn in the next year.” The survey also revealed what is being called “pockets of softness” in the industry, with billings at architectural firms in the Northeast once again declining, as they have been since the winter of this year. While billings were mostly flat in Midwestern architectural firms, “Business conditions remained strongest at firms located in the South and continued to strengthen at firms located in the West, where they increased for a sixth month in a row.” The billings index specifically showed a 47.2 score in the Northeast, 49.9 score in the Midwest, 55.5 score in the South, and 51.3 score in the eleven states making up the West region, including Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. The AIA statement also indicated that firms with a multifamily residential specialization remained “the only group to report increasing firm billings in October.” Billings were “essentially flat at firms with institutional and commercial/industrial specialization.” By Garry Boulard Yet one more big apartment building is moving towards construction in Denver, this one going up in the city’s University Hills section. The Denver-based development company Q Factor wants to build two tower structures on the southeast corner of Evans Avenue and S. Colorado Boulevard. One tower will have 12 floors, connected by an elevated bridge to a second 8-story tower. The project has now won the unanimous approval for a site zoning change that will allow for the construction of the higher tower. According to documents submitted to the Denver City Council, Q Factor describes itself as specializing in “creative design and thoughtful place-making in urban environments.” Those documents also state that the company is committed to building a development that will be in tune “with the community’s character.” The complex will have nearly 90 apartment units, as well as a hotel with up to 130 rooms and a restaurant. The site is currently the home to a dry cleaner and former liquor store. It was also once the home of the Deadbeat Club, a popular nightclub that was heavily damaged by fire in the fall of 2015. By Garry Boulard Bernalillo County officials continue to reach out to neighbors living near the site of a former sanatorium, trying to solicit input on how the property should be repurposed. For roughly four decades, the Sandia Ranch Sanatorium, located at 6903 Edith Boulevard, provided housing and care for people suffering from both mental illnesses as well as tuberculosis. In the 1960s, the sanatorium site, which included four separate buildings, was turned into a nursing home, before ending operations in 1998. In the years following that closure, the abandoned site attracted any number of drug users and vandals before Bernalillo County purchased the property in 2015 for just under $2 million. The structures at the site were subsequently leveled with the county shortly putting out feelers for what should be done with the 17-acre site, located around 6 miles to the north of downtown Albuquerque. Proposals have included turning the property into a park, an aquatic center, and an agricultural demonstration site. A separate bid to build a charter school for the deaf at the site has sparked the opposition of area residents who have said they are concerned that if such a school should fail, the property will once again be left with one or several abandoned buildings. By Garry Boulard |
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